Mountain Stream Cyprinid Tank

[-germ-]

I want to make a bio-tope(!?) tank in which to keep my White Cloud Mountain Minnows (6) and my Butterfly Hillstream Loaches(4).....
Can anyone with a similar set-up or good knowledge of the species involved give me any tips or pointers?
My main query is on water speed, they are always both listed as liking fast flowing water but my loaches seem to like it washing mashine strong and i would have thought the minnows may be a bit delicate for that?
But any relevant input would be much appreciated, thanks!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

you can always create areas of high and lower current for the different fish, just to give an example of the sort of thing you can do get a powerhead and put it reasonably low down in the tank pointing across the back wall, then three quarters of the way across build up a pile of stones, the flow will be broken up by this and on the other side of the stones the flow will be quite gentle and around that area the flow will vary so the fish will be able to find spots that they like.

 

[loachman]

I want to make a bio-tope(!?) tank in which to keep my White Cloud Mountain Minnows (6) and my Butterfly Hillstream Loaches(4).....
Can anyone with a similar set-up or good knowledge of the species involved give me any tips or pointers?
My main query is on water speed, they are always both listed as liking fast flowing water but my loaches seem to like it washing mashine strong and i would have thought the minnows may be a bit delicate for that?
But any relevant input would be much appreciated, thanks!

http/www.loaches.com/articles/hillstream...n-the-fast-lane

There is a picture of the natural habitat of the hillstreams in there with some other stuff. Basically it's FAST flowing. You probably can't get water flow rates up to those speeds in a tank, with reasonable equipment.

 

[-germ-]

Got it already, although i was hoping (naively) for someone who's had exactly the same fish combi....
Heres hoping.
Thanks very much Loachman

 

[loachman]

Got it already, although i was hoping (naively) for someone who's had exactly the same fish combi....
Heres hoping.
Thanks very much Loachman

It's quite possible someone has the combo.

You may want to ask HERE if you don't see any other responses here. There are alot of people on that page that have the type of tank you're talking about (and some very elaborate ones at that).

 

[-germ-]

Oh and not to forget miss wiggles
Yeah thought of that as well, it all depends on the current i can achieve, i may have to silicone together a solid rock feature. Or possibly try and create some sort of embankment
May be getting out of my depth.....
More ponderage required methinks.
Cheers!

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

My main advice for the hillstream loach keeping;
a. Make sure the tank is well filtered. If you cannot get as strong as filter current as you'd prefer, use a lot of bubble pumps/air bubble machine things to help increase the oxygen content of the tank. They have a pretty good river system design on loaches.com if you are intested in making one;

http/www.loaches.com/articles/a-river-runs-through-it

As for me, i just stuck 1000litre's worth of filtration in my tank and added some large air bubble machines for tanks 230 litres.

b. Make sure there is algae, grow lots of it if you can! Hillstream loaches do best on a fresh algae diet. Getting some really strong lighting is good for encouraging algae growth.

Because the lighting in my tanks is not particularly strong, i grow algae separately on large smooth rocks in a large glass jug on a window sill in water full of plant fertilisers, and just transfer an algae covered rock to the tank from the jug for the loaches when needed.

c. Use lots of smooth/rounded rocks or pebbles of varying sizes is best, on a sand or gravel (or both mixed together) substrate. Some planting is good, but try to have just a little planting and not fill the whole tank up with plants. A bit of driftwood strewn around the tank is good for help re-create the natural river habitat look .

Make sure the tank is kept in temps around 19-23 degree's as both hillstream loaches and WCMMs are sub tropical fish .

 

[-germ-]

Many thanks Tokis, the river tank manifold is spot on, easy too.....
Just need some time off work.
Already researched the decor, got loads of dark pebbles, 3 air pumps, small bog wood with java fern and i'll add some sword vallis....
Questions;
1)When you develop your algae covered rock what fertiliser do you use?
2)Is it completely neccessary, i've read of the same idea elsewhere and they didn't mention the fertilizer...
3)How long does it take for algae to develop on your fertilized rocks and any experience as to how long algae would take to develop without fertilizer?
4) Have your current loaches ever succesfully reproduced?
(reproduced pretencious science speaker i be)
Thanks again for the info!

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Many thanks Tokis, the river tank manifold is spot on, easy too.....
Just need some time off work.
Already researched the decor, got loads of dark pebbles, 3 air pumps, small bog wood with java fern and i'll add some sword vallis....
Questions;
1)When you develop your algae covered rock what fertiliser do you use?
2)Is it completely neccessary, i've read of the same idea elsewhere and they didn't mention the fertilizer...
3)How long does it take for algae to develop on your fertilized rocks and any experience as to how long algae would take to develop without fertilizer?
4) Have your current loaches ever succesfully reproduced?
(reproduced pretencious science speaker i be)
Thanks again for the info!

With the algae rock thing;
a. I use "flora boost" by interpet, there is another fertiliser i use occasionally but i forget its name.
b. Nah its not completely nesarsary, but it does help spead up the algae growing process a lot.
c. Varies a lot, when i first started it took 2-3 weeks to get any algae growth, but now it only takes 1-2 weeks.
d. Unfortunately no- i think they are still too young/small to do anything yet. I'm going to get more hillstream loaches though once i'm happy with the tanks design though, right now i have 4-5 (never seen them all out all in one place to together yet though, so i'm not sure if its 4 or 5 i have- they seem to be doing well though) .

I'm going to get some lighting for the a jug in which i grow my algae in on the rocks in there to help speed algae growth up a bit in the future- i have some algae in the tank growing on the sides as it is though so its not really important/vital at the moment, as long as there's algae in the tank or on the rocks i'm happy .

edit: Oh i forgot to add, as a last resort if you ever completely run out of algae, you can stick fish flakes to the inside of the tank at the water line- the loachs should come up and nibble the flakes at the water line, using vegetable flakes like TetraPro vegetable flakes is the best as this is most in keeping with their diet.
Even if you don't run out of algae, the loaches seem to enjoy a couple of vegetable fish flakes plastered to the side of the tank every now and then. I also get flakes of algae growing under my tank hoods from time to time as well, which i strip off and stick to the inside of the tank glass at the water line for the loaches to nibble at too .

 

[-germ-]

Job done although its just overfiltered at the moment, i'll probably just add a matching filter on the other side and try to create a swirling current.
I modified the sticky flake technique to plaster it to my rocks which appears, in turn to have encouraged my algae growth. Ha! Cheers. Do you ever feed yours veg? I've tried time and time again and am having no success, i've tried kale, courgette and cucumber so far with no success. How about potato?
Also when you first got yours were they quite shy? I've got six in the one tank, 2 of them are active constantly but the others stay in their spots until i turn the light off. I've swapped my originally dim light for a bright sun lamp and i'm going to begin switching to the darker lamp a couple of hours before lights out, hopefully tricking them into coming out (i'm clutching at straws, can you tell?). Anyway any advice or am i being impatient....

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Yeah mine won't eat veg either, the only things they eat is the algae on the rocks and fish flakes which i plaster to the tank glass at the water line. One thing i tried to do is disolve algae wafers in a little hot water and then plaster the mix onto rocks, then let it dry and then put them in the tank. I was hoping the loaches would take interest in it but my common pleco came along and sucked it all off before they had a chance to lol .
My hillstream loaches were really shy when i first got them but now they are very tame, i actually think they could be quite intelligent little fish as they always remember that i put fish flakes out for them at night and they que up and wait stuck the tank glass while i put the fish flakes out.